Increasing competitive performance through effective use of performance management systems

Purpose - Private telecommunication companies in Yemen face huge challenges to improve their competitive position. Many of them suffer from performance management systems (PMS) that are not aligned nor integrated and do not give adequate support. This research aims at identifying the current state and quality of PMS in Yemeni private telecom companies and developing recommendations that will assist in improving their performance and competitive position. Design/methodology/approach - As research tools, the performance management analysis – used to measure the quality of a PMS – and the high performance organization (HPO) framework – used to measure the quality of an organization and thereby its ability to achieve sustainable high competitive performance – are applied at three Yemeni private telecom companies. Findings - There is a considerable performance gap between the actual and the ideal PMS in the Yemeni private telecom companies; this performance gap is highly correlated with competitive performance in a negative relationship. Both the structural and behavioral dimensions’ performance gaps have a significant impact on competitive performance, with the impact of the behavioral dimensions being considerably higher than that of the structural dimensions. Originality/value - The current academic literature on HPOs and PMS in Yemen is scarce. This study adds knowledge to these areas, and thus provides a basis for further study. This research results also help managers of the Yemeni private telecom companies to take strategic action to redesign and implement new and improved PMS to increase their competitive performance.